


30-Day Pairing Challenge

by AidanChase



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: 30-Day Challenge, Drabbles, M/M, One Shot Collection, spoilers for blue lily lily blue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-13
Updated: 2015-03-15
Packaged: 2018-03-12 06:39:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 7,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3347288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AidanChase/pseuds/AidanChase
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Collection of one-shots for Ronan Lynch and Adam Parrish, the dreamer and the magician.</p><p>Not rated because I don't know how intimate the prompts will get.</p><p>Tags, warnings, and ratings will be added in the notes section for each chapter/drabble.</p><p>
  <a href="http://internetqueers.tumblr.com/post/90210366457/now-thats-what-i-call-a-30-day-otp-challenge">Link to challenge/prompts</a>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Holding Hands

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone who is subscribed to me should read The Raven Boys. It's flawless dialogue and characters. Everything I aspire to be as a writer. Especially if you love Marauders or Batbrats, (which are largely the other things I write)
> 
> Chapter One rated G, no warnings

1\. Cabeswater was not a dangerous place. Not to the two of them. Cabeswater would protect Ronan--its Greywaren--and Adam--its eyes and ears.

Adam knew Cabeswater was not dangerous. That did not mean he was unafraid. He looked up at the tall trees and strained to hear its whispers. Ronan would do most of the translating, but Adam could help, at least a little.

A hand brushed against his. He turned to see Ronan staring not at Cabeswater, but at him. He wondered what parts of him Ronan was translating to understand this, to understand his instability in this moment. To understand what he needed better than he did.

He returned the gentle touch against his fingers and they intertwined their hands.

There is no word that means the opposite of loneliness, and Adam was not sure that he was not still lonely, or still alone. But he felt grounded, supported, and that was more than he’d felt in a long time.


	2. Cuddling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G  
> Spoilers through Blue Lily, Lily Blue  
> No Warnings Apply

Adam had not let the grief sink in. He had used their journey into the cave as an excuse to set aside his grief. He would wait until it did not hurt as much and then he would allow himself to feel it. Time healed everything, and if he waited long enough, it could heal this too.

But now they were out of Cabeswater, and he was alone--as alone as Cabeswater would let him be--and there was no task to distract him. There was no researching Colin Greenmantle. There was no Latin homework that begged his attention. He did not even have any one of his three jobs to occupy his time.

He shuffled the tarot cards and laid three of them down. But he did not flip them over. He could not bring himself to see what they said. He had not even bothered to ask anything. There was only one question pressing on him, and it was “Why?”, very loudly. He could not understand why Persephone did what she did. He could not understand why she made the choice to scry between those mirrors when she knew it would likely kill her.

Maybe for the same reasons he chose to wake the ley line against Gansey’s judgement. Maybe for the same reasons he sacrificed himself to Cabeswater without knowing what would happen.

There was a knock on his door.

Adam dried his eyes and unlocked the bolt on the door. It was Ronan.

Ronan did not say anything. Adam did not ask why he was there.

They sat down on Adam’s bed. Adam swept up the tarot cards and returned them to their bag. He knew Ronan was not comfortable with psychic readings and scrying and all the things that went on at 300 Fox Way, and he did not want Ronan to feel like he could not be comfortable around him.

But Ronan leaned against him, and Adam hesitantly leaned back. Adam realized that Ronan had spent these last few months doing nothing but being comfortable around Adam. He had been sharing his secrets with Adam, showing Adam pieces of himself that even Gansey had not yet glimpsed.

It was Adam who was not yet comfortable.

Adam reached a hand for Ronan’s, and locked their fingers together. He rested his head where Ronan’s neck and shoulder met and breathed.


	3. Unrequited Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G  
> No Warnings Apply  
> From Chapter 31 of Blue Lily, Lily Blue, alternate perspective

3\. Ronan could feel Adam watching him as they walked into the empty church. It was strange that he had known Adam for almost two years now, but that Adam hardly knew him. As he led Adam towards the organ it felt like he was introducing Adam to a new piece of him. First it had been the dream things, then the Barns, and now this.

Ronan sat beside the statue of Mary and looked at Adam. Adam with his thin frame and delicate cheekbones and fair hair. Adam, who looked like he was made of dust and light, but was truly full of much darker things.

They were creators, the two of them. They were so much more than the world around them. But Adam didn’t seem to understand that. And Ronan didn’t know how to tell him.

Ronan could not lie. Not with his words or his body or his eyes. He knew Adam knew what he felt. For all his secrets, he was terrible at keeping them. But Adam still looked at Blue the way Ronan looked at Adam, and until Ronan saw that change, he would keep his words quiet. A lie of omission was no lie at all.


	4. Making Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating T for physical intimacy but really nothing happens  
> No archive warnings apply
> 
> Disclaimer I've never actually made out with anyone and I have never particularly enjoyed kissing (being that close to someone's face is weird and uncomfortable and dear god no i do not want your spit in my face) so idk what the fuck i'm doing in prompts like these

4\. It was more than Ronan believed he deserved, more than he could have dreamed of.

It wasn’t just their lips pressed together, it was everything. Ronan wasn’t sure where Adam’s heartbeat started and his own stopped. He didn’t know which parts of him were touching or which parts were being touched. And he didn’t care.

He breathed out as Adam breathed in. He pushed and Adam pushed back. It was warm and smooth and tasted faintly metallic, like rust or blood or both. The palm of his hand slid from shoulder down to hip bone, and his whole body moved over Adam’s. He held Adam’s face steady with his other hand, fingers brushing against Adam’s working ear. His lips pushed farther, begging for more.

Adam pulled away, rested his forehead against Ronan’s collar and steadied a hand against Ronan’s chest. “Slower,” he gasped. “Please.”

Ronan buried his face into Adam’s neck and inhaled the familiar and contradictory scent of gasoline and moss. He sat back on Adam’s bed and Adam leaned against him. Ronan would go as slow as Adam wanted. He’d let this last forever if that was what Adam wanted.


	5. With Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G  
> contains Noah, Gansey, and Blue  
> No warnings apply

Ronan didn’t quite understand the concept of “coming out.” He had lied to himself about what he wanted for so long, he thought that by the time he figured it out, everyone else should’ve been able to accept it. And if they didn’t, they could fuck right off.

But, to Ronan, the only people that mattered were Gansey, who had forgiven even stealing the Pig, the highest of sins in the Gansey court of honor; Noah, who knew what Ronan wanted long before Ronan knew; Blue, who couldn’t possibly hate him more; Matthew, who couldn’t possibly love him any less; and Adam--but Adam knew better than anyone what Ronan wanted.

Ronan never worried about how people would react. (Maybe Declan, but then he’d relish it if Declan hated him for it.) Ronan was blessed with friendships he could trust. What he had learned about himself would not shake his relationships with the people he loved.

Adam did not have that trust.

Ronan could not understand why, but Ronan could at least understand that Adam’s fears existed, and respect that. He would let Adam declare the terms of their relationship when Adam was ready.

So as they sat in a booth in Nino’s, and Blue, freshly off her shift, sank into the seat by Adam, Ronan did not reach for Adam’s hand. He kept his own hand safely tucked under his leg and flicked crumpled up straw wrappers at Noah with the other.

“We’re in public,” Gansey sighed wearily, like he was obligated to reprimand Ronan, but he did not expect it to be heeded.

Blue picked an avocado off of the pizza and ate it. “You’re still better behaved than most of our clientele.”

Ronan reached for the pizza and flicked a piece of sausage off of it onto Blue’s nose, leaving behind a red stain of sauce on her skin.

“And yet you’re still Raven Boys,” she said, and picked up a napkin to wipe her face with.

She did not mean it at them in that way. She did not often make those comments, but she was tired from a long shift. And she really only meant it at Ronan, but Ronan watched Gansey’s smile falter--no, not quite falter. It flickered.

He reached for Adam’s hand beneath the table and Adam squeezed back.


	6. Rejection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G  
> No archive warnings apply  
> except this one is a little heartbreaking

6\. The Pig wasn’t there when Adam pulled into the lot of Monmouth Manufacturing after work. He knew where it was, though, and he knew Blue Sargent was in it.

It shouldn’t hurt. He and Blue had been over for more than a month. She and Gansey had as much right to be friends as anyone, and they had every right to be more but oh God, it hurt. It was all of Adam’s worst feelings about himself thrust into his face. Because when it came to Gansey, who could compete?

Adam walked into the apartment without knocking. Noah was seated on Gansey’s bed. He looked up from the box in his hand.

“Don’t do it,” he said.

Adam ignored Noah and knocked on Ronan’s door. There was no answer.

Noah whined, “Why don’t you ever listen?” and Adam pounded again at Ronan’s door. One of the framed speeding tickets came loose and clattered to the floor. Ronan still didn’t answer.

Adam put his hand on the door handle.

“Don’t,” Noah whispered.

Adam pushed his way into Ronan’s room.

Ronan was lounged on his bed, headphones on, shirt discarded, feeding Chainsaw leftover chicken wings. She picked eagerly at the meat between the bones and cawed at Adam.

Ronan pulled his headphones down to rest around his neck and looked at Adam with an expression Adam didn’t see on Ronan too often: confusion. He didn’t understand why Adam was here, even though he understood so much of Adam. Much more than Adam understood, and yet Adam was the one who knew exactly why he was here.

Adam stepped around the clutter in Ronan’s room and knelt on Ronan’s bed. Chainsaw retreated to a perch above them, beside a book with binding that scrolled like a poorly looped film reel.

Adam splayed a hand hesitantly across Ronan’s stomach, first watching his hand, like he wasn’t sure what would happen to it, then watching Ronan’s face, but it didn’t change. Ronan continued staring at Adam with a puzzled expression and so Adam leaned in and kissed him.

Ronan obliged the kiss for a moment, then gently pushed Adam back.

“What happened, Parrish?”

“Isn’t this what you want?” Adam asked.

Ronan’s face was neither a yes or a no. It was still searching Adam’s face, looking for answers that Adam did not want to give.

Adam slid his hand around to Ronan’s back and kissed him again. This time when Ronan pushed gently on his chest, Adam pushed against him with his whole body. Chainsaw squawked a warning but Adam ignored this too and opened his mouth against Ronan’s.

Ronan slid a hand around Adam’s neck, into his hair, tightened his fingers, and pulled Adam back.

Adam let out a shaky breath as he was forcefully separated from Ronan. He balanced his weight carefully--knees pressed into the mattress, dipping to touch Ronan’s thigh, hands pushing against Ronan’s hips--and he kept his eyes down now, avoiding Ronan’s inquisitive gaze.

“I don’t want it like this,” Ronan said. His voice was raw in a way Adam had only heard a handful of times.

Adam pushed himself off of Ronan. When his feet touched the floor, Ronan grabbed his wrist.

“Adam,” he said, “tell me what happened.”

Adam pulled away and left. He noticed Noah only in passing, through his tear-blurred vision, still sitting on Gansey’s bed, and he heard, over the pounding in his heart, in one ear, a dull and mournful, “I told you,” and Adam slammed the door to Monmouth closed behind him.


	7. 7. On a Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G  
> No Archive warnings apply  
> This one hurts, but not as bad as yesterdays, and it has a happy ending  
> Also it's not actually 'on a date' but it's basically the adam-ronan version of a date

7\. “Are we dating?” Adam asked.

They were sitting on opposite sides of Adam’s bed. Adam was trying to do his homework, but it was very difficult to focus on history with Ronan so casually thumbing circles into his bare feet.

Ronan did not look up from his Latin notes. “What?”

Adam pulled his legs away from Ronan and tucked his feet beneath him. “Are we--you know--a couple?”

“A couple of shitheads.”

“Lynch.” Adam closed his history book.

“Parrish,” Ronan said back, with a faint mockery of Adam’s Henrietta accent.

Adam set his jaw and reopened his text book. He withdrew into a corner of the bed, book on his lap, notes creating a barrier between him and Ronan, and continued working. It was not any easier to focus, however, because now he was irritated. 

If Ronan was bothered, he didn’t show it. He continued tapping his pencil against his notes, the rhythm to a song Adam did not know.

Ronan had once seemed so simple, like a shallow pool that would bite if you disturbed the surface, simply for the sake of tasting blood. But now Ronan seemed more like an intensive sculpture of the strongest crystal. Something indestructible, and something that reflected light differently if you turned it even an inch. Adam had spent the last few months watching Ronan carefully turn for him, seeing all the different pieces that made up Ronan Lynch. He’d learned more of Ronan in these last four months than he had in the two years before. But mostly Adam had learned that he did not know Ronan at all.

“Do you want to go on a date?” Adam asked.

Ronan’s upper lip curled back. “ _Minime. Non certe._ Fuck no.”

Adam bit down on his tongue but it did not quell the anger boiling up inside him. “So, what, you just want hang out and make out but not actually be anything? What do you think I am, Lynch?”

Ronan looked up from his Latin and set his pen down. “You want to be a couple? You want to go out to fancy dinners, watch movies neither of us like, kiss goodnight, send morning texts every day?” Ronan looked like he was gagging on the words themselves.

“No, I don’t mean any of that.” Adam closed his book again and set aside his notes. “I want to know if you can depend on me if you need something. If you’ll talk to me just to talk. I want to know if you think about just kissing, or more than kissing when we kiss.”

“What, like fucking?”

“No,” Adam blushed but he wasn’t sure if it was embarrassment or anger, “just--more. I want to know if it matters.”

“Of course it matters.”

Adam’s anger deflated like the tire on his piece of shit car--slowly and with a lot of shaking, and it felt like it was costing him something he didn’t have to give. “Then what are we?”  
Ronan was staring intently at Adam and Adam wasn’t sure if he was searching for the answer or just a way to say the answer. Was it really as complicated as all that?

“I just want you to be Adam Parrish,” Ronan finally said.

If only Adam really understood who Adam Parrish was. But as it was, he did not.

“What are we doing?” Adam hoped this question might bring a more reasonable answer, but Ronan was still giving him that inquisitive look, like the answer was so obvious. Adam thought Latin was easier to translate than Ronan Lynch.

Ronan leaned across the bed, half-crawled towards Adam and half-pulled Adam towards him. Adam obliged this transition and settled in between Ronan’s legs. Ronan wrapped his arms around Adam’s middle and buried his face into the corner of Adam’s shoulder. He breathed slowly, deeply, and Adam let him, though Adam was already building arguments and defenses for when Ronan tried to derail the conversation with kisses.

Finally Ronan said, “Is it okay to just want this?”

Oh. Adam felt his carefully constructed arguments crumble. He leaned back against Ronan and ran his fingers over the back of one of Ronan’s hands.

“Yeah,” Adam said. “This is okay.”


	8. 8. Cheating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T for mild sexual content?????  
> No Archive Warnings apply  
> I'm sorry I tried really hard to think about how one of the boys would cheat on the other but I just couldn't make it happen so I did this and lbr it is 10million times better

8\. “You don’t need five people to play,” Gansey said without taking his eyes off his journal.

“Noah doesn’t count,” Ronan said.

“I count!” Noah protested

“You can’t strip. Probably.” Ronan shuffled the deck of cards and sat cross-legged on the floor next to Adam. “Get your ass down here, Gansey.”

Reluctantly, Gansey set aside his journal and took a seat between Blue and Ronan. “I can’t see why you’re playing, Jane,” he grumbled.

Blue tossed her head. “We play at home all the time. I think I’m pretty good.”

Ronan dealt the cards.

Noah spent the first hand of the game upping the ante for those who could strip, only for everyone to discover, when Adam laid down a high flush, that Noah really could not undress at all, just as Ronan suspected. After that, they allowed Noah to continue playing, but he was not allowed not bet. It was only the start of a very controversial game, with Gansey responsible for the rest of the arguments.

“Shoes don’t count,” Ronan said.

“Why don’t they count?” Gansey frowned.

...

“Contacts definitely don’t count,” Blue said.

Gansey grumbled at this too. “Then your hair clips don’t count.”

“Of course my hair clips don’t count,” Blue said, and removed one of her knee high socks.

...

“For someone who doesn’t lie,” Gansey said to Ronan, “you enjoy this game way too much.”

Ronan only smiled and pulled his tank top over his head.

...

Gansey, who could not seem to master the concept of bluffing, chose to remove his shirt before his jeans, even though he'd already lost his belt. Blue was left in an undershirt and shorts. 

Gansey complained, “Okay, but it’s not fair because Jane has an extra layer of clothing she can bet,” and Blue said, “If you think my bra is coming off, I will beat you with the dull end of my switchblade.”

Ronan was down only to a pair of briefs. Blue told him he better win or quit, because if the briefs came off, she would personally cut off whatever was underneath them.

Ronan protested this as against the rules and very spirit of strip poker, and Gansey grumbled, “You’re the one who invited her to play.”

Adam, strangely, was left in his T-shirt and cargo pants, having only lost his socks and his sweater.

“It’s always the quiet ones,” Blue sighed as Adam dealt out the cards.

“Or,” Ronan said, watching Adam’s hands closely, “Parrish is cheating.”

Adam’s hand paused--briefly--then he continued dealing.

“You are cheating!” Gansey said. He refused to pick his cards up and instead put his polo shirt back on. “I’m out. This is unfair.”

Blue punched Adam’s knee. “So when it came down to my low flush against your high--that should’ve been my win! Shirt, off, now.”

“You can’t prove I was cheating,” Adam said and picked up his hand.

Ronan said, “I guess the only way to settle this is for everyone to go all in.”

“That makes no sense,” Blue said. “Besides, you aren’t allowed to bet anything else.”

“All in, all in!” Noah chanted.

Blue sighed. “Fine. Gansey, get over here.”

“No.”

“Pansy,” Ronan said.

Noah laughed quietly and repeated the rhyme, but it did not motivate Gansey to leave his bed.

“Never would’ve pegged you for a coward,” Blue taunted as she looked over her cards.

“Maybe I just don’t want to see your bra.”

“I’m not sure which part’s more offensive--The fact that you think my breasts are sexual objects or that you think I’m going to lose.”

Slowly, Gansey rolled off his bed and sat back down in the circle. He picked his cards up wearily.

“Shirt,” Blue said, and Gansey obediently removed it.

“Whipped,” Ronan said with a grin.

“You’re one to talk,” Gansey shot back, and rearranged the cards in his hand before laying three down.

Adam also set three down, and everyone watched very carefully as he drew another three cards.

“Everyone is all in, so there’s no sense in folding or bluffing,” Blue said.

“Everyone lay it out,” Ronan agreed.

Noah and Gansey had a pair each, but Gansey’s was a little higher. Ronan had a flush and Blue had a full house. They all looked expectantly at Adam, who finally laid down three of a kind.

Blue punched him again for good measure. “All off, boys. And I want shirts for trophies.”

“What’s the point?” Gansey said. “Game’s over.”

“The point is that I want to revel in my victory until I go home.” 

Adam was spared no embarrassment as he pulled his shirt over his head. Ronan hollered and Blue cheered. Even Gansey expressed some satisfaction as Adam was justly punished for cheating.

“Pants, too,” Ronan said, and Adam reluctantly got to his feet.

Blue cleared her throat meaningfully and Gansey also stood. He’d lost his belt early on, and slid his pants off easily. Adam, however, fumbled with the clasp on his belt.

“Need some help?” Ronan asked. This only made Adam’s already pink cheeks turn bright red.

“I got it,” Adam mumbled and stepped out of his pants. He folded them neatly next to his shirt. The flush on his cheeks was already spreading to his chest and he sat back down quickly, avoiding eye contact with the group.

Ronan pinched his hip. “You’re fine.”

“I don’t feel fine.” He buried his face in his hands. “Why do you think I tried to cheat?”

Gansey was not doing a lot better on the embarrassment front. His face was red and he was eyeing the blanket on his bed like it could provide him protection if only he could reach it without anyone noticing.

Blue suddenly rounded on Ronan who had his thumb hooked in his waistband and said, “Don’t you dare.”


	9. 9. Morning Rituals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating G  
> No Archive Warnings apply  
> Added link to prompts in story summary (credit where credit is due), if anyone is interested in getting a glimpse of what's coming, or just wants to flip through by prompt

9\. Adam was a light sleeper on the best of nights. He had too many old habits of being alert to any noises in the house. But being a light sleeper did not make mornings any easier.

His watch alarm went off and he hit snooze, as a precaution in case he fell back asleep. He sat up slowly, making as little movement as possible. Ronan was asleep on the outside of the bed and Adam didn’t want to disturb him.

But Ronan was only hard to wake when he was dreaming and as Adam tried to crawl over him, he stirred and groaned.

Adam let Ronan grumble--Ronan insisted on being on the outside, so it was his own fault, really--and got in the shower. He tried saving on his water bill, and only taking intensive showers after work when he had to wash out grease and dirt from the creases in his skin. But he still needed a brief morning shower, to wake up and rinse off, and pretend for everyone else he didn’t compare the cost of water droplets against hours worked in a week.

When Adam came out of the bathroom, showered, dressed, and teeth brushed, Ronan had migrated to the floor beside the bed, blankets and pillows pulled with him, victims of gravity and magnetism.

Adam picked up his keys noisily. “Lynch, I’m leaving.”

Ronan snarled something profane into the pillow and sat up. Adam waited while Ronan disappeared into the bathroom to brush his teeth. When Ronan emerged, he was wearing his dress shirt and had his tie in his hand. He grabbed his Aglionby sweater from where it had been shoved last night, between Adam’s plastic night stand and mattress.

Adam hated the way everything about Ronan’s uniform was full of wrinkles and creases. Lynch took disheveled to a new bastardly art, while Adam took so much care to press out any flaw in his uniform.

“You just gonna stare, Parrish, or are you gonna do something about it?” Ronan pulled his keys from the nightstand.

Adam was not going to do something about it. He waited outside the door for Ronan to shove his shoes on, then locked the door behind them. Not that he had anything worth taking, but what he did have was his.

Ronan caught him before he could turn and pressed a kiss to the back of his neck.

 

“We’re going to be late,” Adam said.

Ronan bit where he had kissed then headed downstairs. Adam pressed his flushed face into the cool door frame. He took two breaths before following Ronan down to the curb to try to prevent Ronan from tearing up the inevitable parking ticket.


	10. 10. Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T  
> Warnings: canonical character death; some blood
> 
> This one hurts. I'm sorry.

10\. The rain soaked through Ronan’s clothes. He couldn’t breathe. He was full of too much grief, too much sorrow, too much anger to think about something as complicated as breathing.

“I didn’t--I tried--”

But Adam’s voice was the last voice he wanted to hear right now. He wanted to hear Gansey’s. He wanted to hear him say anything, just breathe, something.

Ronan pressed against the wound in Gansey’s chest, but he couldn’t contain the blood. It leaked through his fingers and stained his skin and soaked through Gansey’s Aglionby sweater and spilled into the dirt and oh God why wouldn’t it stop?

He wondered if this was how Gansey felt that night, that night Ronan had nearly bled out. If Gansey had grabbed his wrists this desperately, had been unable to breathe, had been so angry and hurt.

“I’m sorry,” Adam’s voice faltered, “I thought--”

Ronan’s lips curled back in a snarl. “No. You don’t get to apologize for this.”


	11. 11. Shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G  
> No Archive Warnings apply  
> this is less Adam-Ronan and more "god I love Ronan and Blue's aggressive anti-friendship" i'm sorry

11\. Ronan picked up a smiling sunflower that bobbed back and forth when facing the light.

“I don’t know what kind of shit she likes.”

Adam shrugged. “She likes making stuff.”

Ronan set the sunflower back down. “Maybe I’ll dream her a working copy of my dick.”

“Lynch,” Adam sighed, but he did not have the strength to scold Ronan the way Gansey would. “Do you know what Gansey’s getting her?” Adam asked.

“Probably his dick.”

For this, Adam kicked Ronan’s shin. Ronan kicked back and soon they were scuffling in the aisle, while tiny bobbing sunflowers and large-headed fishermen watched the show.

“Guys!”

They stopped for Noah. He held a foam broadsword like it was Excalibur itself.

Ronan snatched it and hit Adam’s shoulder with it.

“Hey,” Adam snapped.

“There’s more,” Noah said, voice awed.

Noah led Adam and Ronan three aisles down to the toy section of the large store. Noah picked up another broadsword.

“Those really aren’t meant for dueling,” Adam said, because Gansey was not there to make sure they were being historically accurate. But Noah and Ronan didn’t listen as they mock-fenced each other. It ended with Ronan beating the foam sword against Noah, in an accidentally correct use of a broadsword.

“I’m getting her one of these,” Noah said, clinging to it tightly.

“What are you getting her, Parrish?” Ronan asked.

“I think paint brushes.”

Ronan fake-snored.

“What are you getting her?” Adam tried not to sound defensive, but he didn’t think he succeeded.

“This.” He held up the foam broadsword.

“So, what, she’ll have two?”

“No, dumbass. She’s gonna need someone to fight.”


	12. Co-dependence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> rating: G  
> No archive warnings apply  
> I feel like adam barely does dependence in any form so this was really hard to write and I don't think I actually succeeded but oh well have fun

12\. Adam wanted to collapse into bed when he got home from work but he did not have that luxury. Instead, he flipped the bolt on the door and pulled off his work clothes.

Ronan stirred from the collection of pillows and blankets on the floor and sat up.

“Did you do your homework?” Adam asked and folded his coveralls before tucking them under the upturned plastic tub that served as a nightstand.

Ronan did not answer this question. “Gansey keeps texting asking when you’re going to be home.”

Adam, in turn, ignored this, and went into the bathroom to shower. Ronan followed.  
They didn’t say anything. Ronan did not undress or get in the shower with Adam. He only sat on the floor beside the shower and turned a pen over in his hand. After Adam finished scrubbing oil from under his fingernails and exchanged the scent of grease in his hair for the dollar-store-version-of-coconut, he put on his pajamas.

He laid down on his bed with his history book and Ronan laid down next to him. They didn’t say anything, but Ronan took one of Adam’s hands and held onto it. He alternated between rubbing it or stroking it or just holding it.

Ronan’s phone buzzed on the nightstand, and they both ignored it.


	13. Making Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G  
> no archive warnings apply

13\. The words are not easy for him, and he knows they’re not easy for Adam. Adam, who works so hard to own the decisions he makes and the things he chooses, Adam who is determined to, above all else, decide for himself.

And Ronan, who lives with so many regrets, but makes all mistakes honestly, as if there were no other options, does not know how to apologize for what was inevitable.

He manages it somehow. The way he managed it for Gansey, time and time again. He manages it for Adam now, head low, hands shoved deep in his pockets, cheeks burning.

“I didn’t mean it. I just--” He doesn’t know if he’s trying to help Adam understand or trying to make excuses. “I’m not good at… careful. I don’t know how to be careful.” Gansey always did that for him.

“I know,” Adam says quietly.

There’s so much space between them and Ronan wishes Adam would close that space. But Adam makes no moves from his seat on the bed.

“I’m not fragile,” Adam says, and oh God they both know that’s such a lie. Such a lie, and Ronan’s hands ball into fists that Adam can’t see. But Ronan would be a fool if he thought Adam wouldn’t notice the way his shoulders tense.

“I’m not going to break because of your tongue.”

Ronan does not want to fight. He chooses not to fight, and instead goes for the wide open joke Adam practically wrote for him. “That,” he finally looks up to meet Adam’s eyes with a devilish grin, “sounds like a challenge.”


	14. 14. Movie Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G  
> No Archive Warnings apply  
> I'm sorry Gansey likes to take the center stage if I include him at all I'm so sorry I'll try to keep him out of future pieces but it's really hard okay it's like trying to write the Marauders without all of them there it just doesn't work  
> ALSOO brownie points to anyone who can correctly guess what movie the gang is watching

14\. Gansey did not swear very often. When he did, it was usually about the Pig, or about Ronan, and on occasion about Adam, and on very rare occasions, about Blue. But not very often, really. So Blue and Adam both looked at him with a bit of shock when he said, “What the hell is this?”

“Shut up,” Blue said, and pushed him off the couch.

He reached over to the coffee table and pushed the space bar on the laptop. “I’m serious, I have no idea what’s going on.”

Adam lifted his head from Ronan’s shoulder. “Just ignore the plot holes, Gansey. This movie isn’t going to answer questions.”

“Are you kidding?” Ronan said. “This movie is motherfucking art.”

“How eloquent,” Gansey grumbled and climbed back onto the couch next to Blue.

Ronan stretched his barefoot out to the laptop and pushed play again.

“Mmm, art, as the space ship burns without any oxygen to fuel its flames,” Adam murmured.

Ronan pinched his shoulder.

“This is the worst love confession ever,” Gansey sighed.

“Parrish’s was worse.” Ronan grunted as Adam punched him in the stomach.

“I haven’t heard that story,” Blue said.

“It’s not one that needs telling,” Adam said flatly.

“Guys, I can’t hear,” Noah whined from his seat on the floor.

“They’re not saying anything important!” Gansey said, and motioned aggressively with an open palm. “Nothing makes sense.”

“She’s a space princess,” Blue snapped. “It doesn’t have to make sense.”

“There are like two bad guys and a love interest, it is not that hard to keep track of,” Ronan said.

“They set up an entire malicious economy and we only see three beneficiaries of it. Are there competitors? What other carbon based lifeforms benefit from this trade? Or is everything human? How does--”

Blue punched Gansey in the stomach, and he was quiet for the rest of the movie.


	15. Humiliation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G  
> No Archive Warnings Apply  
> except minor secondhand embarrassment might be an appropriate warning
> 
> I'm sorry these were supposed to be daily but I got caught up in life and I'm writing a screenplay, so that's really been my focus these last few days i'm so sorry

15\. “What do you even like on pizza?” Ronan asked

Adam bent the edge of his straw and shrugged his shoulders. “Whatever’s fine.”

Ronan drummed his fingers against the table. “Do you even like pizza?”

“Sure.”

It was always half-sausage (Ronan’s) and half-avocado (Gansey’s). Adam never paid, so Adam never voiced an opinion, and Noah didn’t eat. But now it was just Ronan and Adam at Nino’s and Ronan didn’t know what to put on the other half of the pizza.

“If you don’t tell me something, I’ll get pineapple,” he threatened.

Adam only shrugged. “If that’s what you want.”

Ronan did not want pineapples, but he was not the sort to make empty threats.

“What’s wrong, Parrish?” he asked, when the sausage half of their pizza was gone and they were left with half a pizza of pineapples.

“Nothing,” Adam said.

Ronan picked up the knife and stabbed a piece of the pineapple pizza. “It’s not a date if that’s what’s bothering you.”

“It’s not.”

Ronan twisted the knife and mutilated a piece of pineapple. “Do you want it to be a date?”

Adam did not answer. He just stared at his glass of water and pinched his straw between his fingers.

Ronan was not much for thinking before he acted. He knew what he wanted, and he went for it. He was learning to be careful with Adam, because Adam could be surprisingly brittle, no matter how often Adam denied it. Tonight, however, he was too irritated to be careful.

Ronan reached across the table and pulled Adam into a kiss.

He could feel Adam’s pulse rise where his thumb pressed beneath the corner of Adam’s jaw, but Adam did not pull away.

When Ronan let go, he had pineapple pizza smeared into his elbow and Adam’s face was pink. Someone started clapping. Adam went red.

“I’m going to wait in the car,” he said quickly, and shoved the napkins at Ronan.


	16. Dancing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G  
> No Archive Warnings Apply  
> Ronan is a little shit and prom is a sucky thing that people rarely enjoy

16\. Ronan leaned back in the collapsible chair and kicked the legs of the collapsible table. “No one even wants to be here,” he said.

Adam sat beside him, picking at a piece of grocery-store-quality cake. “Gansey seems to.”

“Only because Blue’s in that dress.” Ronan eyed Gansey and Blue on the gym-turned-dance-floor. Both looked horribly uncomfortable. Gansey hid it well, but Ronan knew. And Blue did not hide it at all. They were only here in the first place because of an unfortunate fight.

It was a week of Gansey moping that Blue hadn’t asked him to her high school prom, then Blue telling him she had no intention of even going, and if he really wanted to go he should’ve told her a week earlier, and then Gansey protesting that it wasn’t about wanting to go it was about wanting to be asked, and then Blue irritably asking him and Gansey saying yes and then there were tickets purchased in some sort of defiance, and then Ronan and Adam were begged to go along to make things less awkward.

It did not make things less awkward. At least sitting here at the table with a 99-cent plastic cover, eating terrible cake, was less awkward than it had been asking Declan to sign a high school dance permission slip.

Gansey was the center of attention, with his clean haircut and expensive tie that practically breathed his bank account numbers. And Gansey clearly hated it, clinging to Blue’s in a way only Ronan and Adam noticed, because they were so practiced at seeing through Gansey’s charm.

Ronan was too intimidating for the girls to do much more than whisper about from a distance, but Adam was unfortunately approachable with his sensitive blue eyes and lack of girl on his arm.

A dark-skinned girl in a champagne colored dress walked over to their table. She reminded Ronan strangely of Orla, especially in the way she smiled at Ronan’s glare. But then she looked at Adam.

“Do you want to dance?” she asked, and leaned against the table to look at Adam’s face.

Adam took a moment to meet her eyes, then said, “Oh, I’ve got this cake. Maybe a bit later?” But Adam did not look like he would be finishing his cake any time soon.

“Your friend can watch it,” she said, and looked over to Ronan with an overly-friendly smile.

Ronan scowled and kicked the table leg again. It buckled and the girl fell with it. Adam jumped to his feet and reached a hand down to help her. She indignantly pushed herself to her feet, checked to make sure her dress was intact, and stormed off in her very high heels.

“That wasn’t necessary,” Adam hissed.

“It was an accident.” Ronan shrugged without budging from his seat.

Now Gansey came hurrying over, a teacher on his heels. Blue stayed just far enough behind to avoid looking involved.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Gansey said to the teacher, explaining on Ronan’s behalf without even asking Ronan what went wrong. Adam and Gansey righted the table and Gansey apologized again for the trouble.

Ronan suddenly got to his feet. “Let’s get out of here,” he said to Adam. 

Adam looked to Gansey for confirmation, and Gansey looked to Blue.

Blue nodded eagerly.

As soon as they were outside, Gansey let out a deep breath. “We are never doing that again.”


	17. Gender Swap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G  
> Warnings: Major second hand embarrassment
> 
> I'm sorry it took so long. I've been busy with personal projects. It's extra long to make up for the wait.

17\. Anna knocked on the door of Monmouth, towel and soaps in hand. Today was not going as expected, and she was so glad Gansey answered instead of Riona.

“Anna.” Gansey looked surprised to see her, and more surprised by the towel. But she didn’t ask, she only opened the door.

“There’s construction or a broken fire hydrant or something on my block. Is it okay if I shower here?” Between Henrietta summers and working in an auto shop, not taking a shower wasn’t really an option.

“Yeah, of course.” Gansey pointed to their kitchen-bathroom, as if Anna needed directions.

She’d used the shower at Monmouth a few times--like when she’d left home and had to stay with Gansey for a couple nights. That had been miserable. Or after a particularly lengthy hiking session, mapping ley lines. But she hadn’t needed it for a while, at least not since she and Riona had started… fighting less. She couldn’t say they were dating. Riona didn’t date. But they weren’t friends with benefits either. The “benefits” part didn’t really happen between them.

Anna set her bag with her clean clothes down and hung her towel over the curtain rod. She undressed and folded her dirty clothes neatly and left them on top of the fridge. Then she undid her braid and stepped into the shower.

She didn’t take an especially long shower--her hair was thin, and didn’t require a lot of scrubbing. The worst was getting grease out from under her fingernails and making sure she scrubbed the scent of motor oil off her body.

She heard the fridge open and close at one point, but didn’t think anything of it. It was probably just Riona, who didn’t have the decency to knock. Gansey would’ve waited for her to be done, and Naomi had no need to use the fridge.

She turned off the water and wrung out her hair. She grabbed her towel and dried off. When she pulled aside the shower curtain, her clothes were missing.

Anna wrapped the towel around her, but, even thin as she was, it was not a very large towel and she felt hideously exposed in it. She opened the door just a crack to see if anyone was in the loft. Gansey was nowhere to be seen.

Anna pulled the towel as tight and close as she could, held it in place with one hand, and with her other hand, pounded on Riona’s closed bedroom door. She didn’t wait for Riona to open it. She pushed her way right in.

“Where the hell are my clothes?”

Riona looked up from her Calculus homework (as if Riona doing homework wasn’t suspicious enough.) “Your what?”

“My clothes, Riona! This isn’t funny.”

Riona smiled and scratched at the space behind her ear, where her close-cut hairline met the tattoo that snaked up her neck. “I think it’s hilarious.”

Anna went red and tried to pull her towel tighter. She could tear apart the mess in Riona’s room for her clothes, but her towel didn’t allow her enough mobility to do that without exposing more of herself than she was comfortable with.

She heard Gansey’s voice on the stairs outside the apartment. Thank God. Riona would listen if Gansey scolded her.

But then she heard a male voice after Gansey’s. Oh God. Blue was here.

She slammed Riona’s door closed. The last thing she needed was for Blue to see her in a towel. “Dammit, Riona,” she hissed. “I’m not going out there with Blue here.”

Riona hummed and looked back at her Calculus. “That’s too bad because your clothes are under Gansey’s bed.”

“Go get them.”

“This homework is very important. Maybe when I’m done.”

“Riona!”

Riona only smiled faintly and scribbled something onto her graphing paper. Anna leaned against Riona’s door and sighed heavily. She tried to think of a way to let Gansey know what she needed without letting Blue know, but if there was an answer, it eluded her. She even considered borrowing one of Riona’s dresses, but that would’ve meant she had to drop her towel in front of Riona and she wasn’t ready for that.

So she took a deep breath, swallowed down whatever sense of pride she had left, and stepped out of Riona’s room.

Gansey and Blue seemed to be enjoying a quiet conversation. It actually embarrassed Anna on another level--she missed having conversations like that with Blue, and it was so easy to be jealous of Gansey. Her face was hot as she stepped out of Riona’s room.

Blue noticed her first and went bright red. He ducked his head down and made a barrier between Anna and his eyes with a pillow off Gansey’s bed. This made Gansey turn, and even she went pink.

“Anna--what’s….”

With as much confidence as she could muster, she said, “Riona hid my clothes. She says they’re under your bed.”

Unfortunately, Gansey’s first thought was not, “I should retrieve these clothes immediately to spare Anna’s embarrassment,” as Anna hoped it would be. Instead, Gansey went to Riona’s open door.

“Riona!”

This left Blue with a pillow over his face, and Anna standing awkwardly in the towel, unable to retrieve her clothes, because Blue was sitting there, and bending over would mean exposing a good portion of her backside.

“Do you mind grabbing them for me?” Anna asked. She was pretty sure her voice cracked somewhere in there.

Blue groped under the bed without looking at Anna or at the clothes under the bed. “I’m not going to find like, a pink lacy thong am I?” he asked.

Anna had no idea what Blue was going to find. He handed her a black bra with white lace, but it was clearly too big for Anna.

“That’s Gansey’s,” she said, and chewed on the inside of her cheek. Maybe Riona had been lying. Then Gansey handed her a blouse, a plain beige bra, a skirt, and a pair of underwear, all folded together. “There should be some stockings under there too,” Anna said, “but I’m just gonna put this on real quick.”

She disappeared into the bathroom as quick as she could. It took her a minute to get her breath back under control, and she splashed cold water on her face to cool off before putting on her bra and underwear.

She was just pulling up her skirt when the door opened. “H-hey--”

“I meant apologize after--” Gansey shouted, but Riona ignored her and went into the bathroom.

Anna frowned. “What.”  
Riona shrugged. “Gansey says I should say I’m sorry, but I’m really not. And it’s not my policy to lie.”

Anna pulled her blouse over her head, but Riona caught her hips before she could pull the shirt all the way down. Riona pressed her mouth against Anna’s neck. She didn’t kiss, suck, or bite like she usually did (Riona had a wonderful fixation with teeth that Anna loved when they weren’t angry with each other), Riona only pressed her face into Anna’s skin and breathed.

“Not now,” Anna sighed.

“I like it better when you don’t shower,” Riona said into Anna’s neck. “When you come over smelling like gasoline and the inside of a car, and you put your hair up in one of those stupid buns.”

“Riona, where are my dirty clothes?”

“I’m keeping them.”

“That’s creepy as fuck.”

“Mmm, don’t say that in front of Gansey. She’ll say I’m a bad influence on you.”

“You are. You’re a bad influence on Gansey too.”

Riona snorted. “I can’t be a worse influence on anybody who already possesses the name Fanny.”

Anna laughed despite herself. “Don’t call her that.”

“I think Frances is the only name someone can have where the actual name is more embarrassing than the nickname.”

Anna laughed harder. “Stop.”

“Frances Champagne Gansey III,” Riona said, in a perfect imitation of Gansey’s mother. She even pronounced “Champagne” not like the drink, but like the French word: cham-PON-nya.

Anna was shaking with the effort of restraining her laughter and leaned against Riona for support. “Seriously, stop.”

“I can’t understand why you don’t approve of your name,” Riona continued in Mrs. Gansey’s voice. “It comes from a wonderful tradition--”

Anna cut Riona off with a kiss, because there was no other way to distract Riona once she got going on mocking Gansey’s full name. The fact that they were both laughing only made it better.

They separated, and Anna finished pulling down her shirt. She and Riona went out and sat with Gansey and Blue. Blue awkwardly handed Anna her stockings and her bag. Her work clothes were still MIA, but she’d get them before she left.

Blue was in the middle of a story about something frustrating Orlando had done this morning when Riona leaned over and whispered in Anna’s ear, “I’m going to teach it to Chainsaw,” and Anna fell apart in a whole new fit of laughter.


End file.
